Monday, July 25, 2011

Your hair is beautiful young sista! I'm lost please help! ll natural did big chop in oct., 2010 for the third time in 4 years. I find myself going back to that creamy stuff because I don't have a clue on natural hair care! seriously .. I have a cabinet of sooooo many different shampoos and conditioners it's a waste of money. I have very tightly curly hair that shrinks up to my head. It's a med coarse hair mixture of my fathers soft silky very curly, wet the brush hair n my mom's very coarse kinky hair that was very full. After I use something I say this is not it. Over n over .. I have been told not to use shampoo! Please help .. over 50 and can't afford to keep walking around like a shrunkin headed lil boy too much longer. I really want locs .. just not the ugly phase! about them. Help!

Answer:

Take a deep breath, exhale! It will be okay. I have tried so many conditioners and shampoos and hair products-it is ridiculous! You all hear me say I use like 3-4 products religiously but you all don't know about the piles of other products I have tried in the past that are collecting dust under my cabinet (Well now you do I guess)! :O

One thing that you have to accept is that if you have a tight, kinky texture, your hair is going to shrink. That is natural and it is actually a good thing! Here is why: if your hair shrinks up after you wet it or moisturize it with a water based product, that means that your hair has good elasticity.

Hair that has poor elasticity is more susceptible to breakage because it cannot bounce back once force has been applied to it. Also without shrinkage, you wouldn't have coils or curls. Think about it: the main difference between tight kinky hair, loose curly hair, and straight hair is the degree of bends and turns in the hair.

Straight hair has none, and curly hair is the happy median between the other two. Kinky hair of course has the most bends and turns along the hair strand, and as a result, has the most shrinkage. The bends and turns along the hair strand makes this hair type more susceptible to damage as well.

But like I said earlier, the fact that your kinky hair snaps back and shrinks up after being manipulated is a good sign that your hair has excellent elasticity, a good thing.

I know it is frustrating when you have 4 inches of hair but it shrinks up to only show 2 inches! Trust me, I still shake my head every time I put in a fresh set of twists that rest on my shoulders the day I put them in and the next day they are at my ears! But you just have to learn how to either deal with it or work around it.

If you are in the TWA stage but you have enough length for twists or braids, you can try braiding or twisting your hair up at night, and then releasing the twists and braids in the morning for a twist out. This way, you are able to reduce some of that shrinkage and you can help to stretch out those ends to prevent knots and single strands from occurring.

Twist Out done on about 2-3 inches of hair

You can find more pictures here There is really no way to permanently get rid of shrinkage other than to use heat on your hair or to get a texturizer, but of course, this will change the texture of your hair and it may lead to breakage and hair damage. Now to answer your question about shampoo: Why did someone suggest that you stop using shampoo? Shampoo is great for removing product build up from your hair but it is not absolutely necessary if the products that you use are water soluble. Water soluble products can be removed without the use of shampoo, or with sulfate free shampoos. If you were told to not use shampoo to stop your hair from shrinking, I am not so sure of that. In my experience, as soon as water hit my hair it will shrink up no matter what! I just counteract it by washing my hair in braids and twists which allows my hair to remained stretched out after it has dried.

Now about the locs: if you are not ready for all of the stages of the locing process, then you probably want to hold off on getting them. It can take months or a year or more for locs to reach full maturity. There are so many different things that you have to consider before you commit to the locing process that I would suggest that you take a look at some of these resources before you take the plunge:

Hey ya'll! I just uploaded the braided roots mini twists with flat twists video to youtube.

You have been warned: it is not a tutorial of the actual hairstyle, I was pressed for time and my lighting sucks so I could not film at night. But I do offer a few tips in the video that may be helpful for those of you who are doing mini twists. And yes, I promise that I will have a flat twist tutorial video in the future :D (as long as I can do a good job of teaching it though!)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Braided roots twists may be here to stay. I really enjoyed the results of the last set of braided roots twists. I had ZERO tangles and the take down was a breeze. So I did it again. If it ain't broke...

I did this on stretched hair. I washed and conditioned my hair the previous night and braided it up in big sections after I moisturized it. I then let it air dry for 18 hours or so.

Remember I said how awesome the Suave almond and shea butter conditioner was? Well I take it back. It is good for detangling yes, but it was responsible for drying my hair out. But I was in denial. Just wanted to give ya'll an update on that.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

I wore the braided roots twists for about 11 days and got tired of them. Well no, me and my boo were going to celebrate our 9 year anniversary and I wanted to be kind of fancy. Well, not that braided roots twists aren't fancy, but I wanted an upgrade.

So I took my twists out and kept the roots braided. The plan was to wear that style for two days and to do another style. That was Monday of last week. Today is Sunday of the next week and I am still wearing this style! I am in love and I might just do this more often. A video is on its way explaining all the details of how I went from having the worst time with this hair style in the past, to having now one of my favorite "out" styles ever.

If you have been rocking with me for a minute, then you will know that I hardly ever wear my natural hair out. Ever! Especially not for a whole week! Or if I did I will report back that my hair is tangled beyond belief and I curse myself out and vow to never do it again and then do it again once I get amnesia. But I spot checked one of these braided roots twists and I must say, I do not anticipate a very bad detangling session in the future as opposed to all of my other attempts in the past. And I will share all of that in the next video. But for now, I just wanted to share the pictures!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

If your girl only knew-what I went through, to put this up. What "we" went through, me and the musical genius of a fiance. Poor thing was suppose to get a new computer to make music on, then he hit a deer the day before he was going to buy it, then that weekend he got a ticket, then if it couldn't get any worse someone stole his phone where he kept his music! Terrible!

But it is up, and I hope it is helpful! That is all that matters. If it helps someone then it served its purpose. One thing about me is that I do this because I want to help people. I was lost and didn't know anything about hair almost 5 years ago. And if it wasn't for those who shared what worked for them, helped me with the questions I had, I wouldn't even be natural right now. So I really do hope that someone somewhere finds any info that I share helpful.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Sometime in December of 2006, I decided to put a red semi-permanent color on my hair. It left my hair feeling dry. I already had permanent color on my hair and the semi-permanent was too much for my hair. It eventually bounced back though:

Left: before the color Right: After the color. The color made my hair feel and look weird

I ended up pulling them back with this headband. My sister "borrowed" it and I haven't seen it since :/

I still kept experimenting with new hairstyles. Some were hits, and others were misses.

Puff with a twist out bang. January, 2007

You ever want to know how thick my hair strands are? Here is a shot of me showing how much hair I lost after detangling. You see how visible my strands are in this picture?

Curled the box braids. Didn't like it too much. But somebody else did that shocked the crap out of me.

From my January Fotki album:

It took four months but my daddy said he likes my hair like this and to take a picture for him :) The only other time he said something resembling a compliment was in October when he said, "I may not agree with the way you wear your hair, but your hair does look healthy and shiny" :) Hey....Ill take that lol.....

Twist out. I wore this to my home church. I think this was the first I went back since I went natural:

Mini Twists:

With Flat twists in the front (March 2007)

Back of the twists.

Side view:

Braid Out

March 2007

Soon, I finally began to start loving my nappy hair! From March 2007:

When I first bc I was a little shocked and not really feeling my napps...now I am in love with them! Straighten what? Curl who? I guess that means I should be having that relaxer dream soon! lol....I am about 9 days from my last relaxer anniversary.....and have absolutely NO PLANS to EVER ever ever....ever ever torture myself with that devil cream ever again....that crap is the reason why I have alopecia on my left temple (you can see it here) and caused obsessive itching and on occasion burning....and smelled like rotten eggs with ammonia...yuck!

If I ever (which I dont have the desire to now) feel like a straightened style...then the most I will do is a wig...no hot comb or curling iron is coming near my crown! Im still on the fence with the blow dryer.....

Top view of the braid out:

The ug: Jacked up puff

shrunken puff. Jacked up with the back combs

April, May June 2007

Two cornrows in the front with twists:

Shrunken Puff:

On my way with me and the fam and boo to see Tyler Perry's play, "What's Done In the Dark..." live

More picked out fro on another day. This is around the time I was fed up with how the color had changed my hair for worst. Before I went natural, I dyed my hair and I still had some of that left. What was left was hard and brittle. I have never felt my hair so hard before or after this time period. It had to go. Look how awful this picked out fro below is and how fuzzy my twists were. That is always a sign for me that something is not right with my hair. That is why it is important to know what is normal for your own hair.

I love this shirt and don't have the slightest idea what happened to it. I wonder did somebody throw it away... hmm....

Flat twist and twist style to see Musiq Soulchild (my first concert):

Front View:

The color really jacked my hair up. Do you see how awful the colored twists look in comparison to the virgin hair?